Section 141-C:15 Treatment, Care of Sick; Costs. - New Hampshire Statutes

   I. Any person infected with a communicable disease, or reasonably suspected of being infected with a communicable disease, and whose continued presence among the citizenry poses a significant threat to health and life, shall be ordered by the commissioner under RSA 141-C:11, to report to a health care provider or health care facility to undergo such treatment and care as the commissioner may deem necessary to eliminate the threat. The commissioner shall adopt rules, pursuant to RSA 541-A, necessary to issue and carry out such orders for treatment and to restrict and control communicable disease through treatment.
   II. If the person subject to the order cannot be removed to a health care provider or to a health care facility for treatment without danger to his life or to the citizenry, the commissioner shall impose isolation or quarantine under RSA 141-C:11 and shall arrange for treatment and care as necessary to mitigate the threat.
   III. The commissioner shall assist indigent persons who are infected with tuberculosis and supply them with anti-tuberculosis drugs for treatment and preventative therapy, chest x-rays, and such physical examinations as necessary to monitor the course of treatment and therapy.
   IV. The cost of treatment and care, except treatment provided under RSA 141-C:15, III, and physical examinations under RSA 141-C:9 and RSA 141-C:18, shall be a cost to the person, or his parent or guardian, or, if such person is indigent, from such public funds available for such purposes. Costs of physical examinations and treatment and care provided to the operator, passengers and crew of conveyances who are, or might have been, infected by means of the conveyance, shall be a cost to the owner, consignee or assignee of the conveyance.
   V. The cost for maintenance of quarantine for commodities, conveyances, cargo and baggage, and for the decontamination of commodities, conveyances, cargos and baggage, shall be a cost to the owner, consignee or assignee of the commodity or conveyance.
   VI. When an individual subject to an order for treatment by the commissioner refuses to undergo such ordered treatment, the commissioner may issue a complaint, which shall be sworn to before a justice of the peace. Such complaint shall set forth the reasons for the order imposing treatment, the nature of the treatment to be provided, and the place or facility where the treatment shall be provided. Upon being presented with such an order, any law enforcement officer shall take such individual into custody and transport the individual to the place or facility where the treatment is to be provided.

Source. 1986, 198:21. 1995, 310:183. 2002, 258:17, eff. July 1, 2002.